Process of manufacturing iron alloys.



To all cvhom it may concern I it lruowu that I, GEORGE M. Corn/ocosus sss, a citizen of the United Slices of America, and residing at New Yorlhiu the county of New York and Shots of New York, have invented new and useful 1mproremculs in Processes of Manuiucturing Iron Alloys, of which the following is a specification.

The main object of the present invention is to provide for the commercial umuui'scsure of an iron. alloy at 11 low cost. This'l As examples of the ores which i propose to treat according to my invention l may mention the following compositions.

No 2*, med:

Iron. Fe. Sulfur. S. INickel. Ni.

Cooper, Cu. Sglica. Elm .I O magnes u, u g Lime, Coo. Alu11liIlL-, Al20g.

To make the alloy direcsly from the ore conta ning iron, nlckel and copper as sullids, the following process is employed;

(1) The ore is first crushed by roch' breaker uml pulvcrizing mill, such as a ball mill, to the desired degree of fineness Winch 1 I find to be below Ell-mesh.

(2) The-crushed ore is next messed with suitable fuel in a standard roosting furnace, such as the McDougall, Herreshoil, or Wedge, until it is nearly or quite iiree from sulfur, and the iron, nickel and copper, which occurred as sulfids in the ore sre con vertecl wholly or in greater part into crisis. In this roasting I employ suiiicient fuel to remove all but the last 1% or so of sulfur.

(3) The roasted ore is then removed from the roasting furnace preferably While still hot and is suitably smeltecl with a suitable flux into a copper nickel ferro pig slsging mer converter,

oil she various hos-metallic eiemeuis as silicsles.

i) The result-sh; copper-nickel ferro pigis than charged into an electric refining iui usce or on open hesrlvh furnace or Besseshcl the remaining sulfur, silicon, excess carbon and. other impurities are removed, the resultant muterisl being 2. nickel-copper steel containing such percentage of carbon, may he found most suitable and comhiuerl content of copper and nickel from 1.5% to 12% according to the origin-oi composition of the orcs treated which may mixed ss desired. Additional iron may be put in the relinii g' furnace Whenever it is found desirable to do so.

The process therefore contemplates crushing we niorsl-copper-ironores to a suitable fineness; second, roz-istihg oui ,mosl;

of the sulfur uurl converting sullicls l o ozriols; third, s i. -g to remove mos-c of the non-metallic elements; and fourth, refining to eliminate the remaining uuclesirsbl-e elements. The iron, nickel mui copper are kept together thrcughoiu; the process.

The third. step may uccoumlished by smelting s limessoue flux in an electric shufi furmuze ird step may also be This s divided into two sub-steps(a) noclulising by a suitable s, the gangue being; used as a binder uucl lime added ii. necessur g b) the nocluiizerl ore is shes charged into u blast furnace together with coke, limestone and such other flux as may advisable and she ore is to e copper nickel ferro pig. The mcpoiiious of metals Weights iuthe suirl ulloy steel will he Within the fol.- lowing rau5re:lliclrel-1 to 8%; copper to iron- 82 to 98%. There will also be present a limited amount of carbon up to as may be found expedient for special purposes and such amount of impurities us would ofhmrily exist in commercial steel and. in nickel and copper. Examples alloys proiluced from the ores previously mentioned might contain the following percentsgcs:-

No. 1. No. 2 No. 3 Fe. 96.35 94. a 91.4 N!. 2.8 4. 6. Cu. .75 2.. C. .1 .2 .4

As an example of approximate physical properties of my alloy steel, the following; may be cited :A test bar of a loy steel with 6% nickel and 2% copper has approximately the following properties:--Ull;imuise stress-108,000 lbs. per sq. in; yield point 92,000 lbs. per sq. in.; reduction of aree- 50%: elongation It is not my intention however to limit my patent to the proportions quoted above. This copper-nickelsteel will have practically the same physical nickel copper ore and retaining all three elements together throughout the entire trez tinent I insure the most homogeneous and hence most valuablealloy of the three metals which it is possible to produce.

I have used the term iron alloy in a broacl sense to include steel containing various percentages-of carbon. The preferred product is an iron, ickel, copper, carbon alloy or n nickel, copper alloy steel.

It will be obvious that for commercial res.- sous the different steps of any process may be carried out in different places. For instance, the ore may be crushed, roasted and smelled at one place and the resultant pig shipped to another place for refining.

What l. claim is:-

1. The process of making an iron alloy which consists in first crushing s niclrol copper-iron sulficl ore to a suitable fineness; second roasting, out most of the sulfur and converting the sullids to orids; third smelting tore'move most of the non-1netsllic elements and to reduce the metallic oxicls; anal fourth refining to eliminate the remaining undesirable elements and retaining substantially ell of the iron, nickel and copper in combination throughout the process.

The process of making an iron alloy which includes roasting" a nickel, copper, iron sulficl ore to'eliminate sulfur and form iron, copper and nickel oxide and then smelting the product with a suitable fiux' to eliminate the non-metallic elements as silicates and to reduce the OXldS to a pig of iron, nickel and copper suitable for subsequent refining.

3. The process of making an iron alloy which consists in first crushing a nickel copper-iron sulfid ore to 3, suitable fineness; seconrl roasting out most of the sulfur and converting the iron, nickel and copper sulfids to oxicls; and third smelting with a suitable flux to remove most of the non-metallic elements and to reduce the metallic oxids to a pic; of iron, nickel and copper suitable for refining.

4;. The process of making a steel alloy which includes roasting a nickel, copper,

iron sullirl ore to eliminate sulfur and form iron, copper and nickel oxirls and then smelt ing the product with a suitable flux to eliminite the non-metallic elements as silicates:

and to reduce the'oxicls to a pig of iron, nickel, copper and carbon and then subsequently refining the composite pig sudiorming' n nickel, copper alloy steel.

5. The process of making an iron alloy which includes roasting a nickel-copper-iron suhirl ore containing from .5 to 12% nickel, from ,2 to 10% copper, antlfrom to 60% iron and converting the iron, nickel and copper sulficlsto onics; and smelting with a suitable flux to remove most of the non metallic elements and to reduce the metallic oxirls to a. composite pig of iron, nickel and copper suitable for refining.

iE-ORG-E M. COLVQGORESSES. il itnesses lloe'r. S. ALLYN, E. lilnrlnronu. 

